New Hearthstone Expansion 'Journey To Un'Goro' Adds Quests To Matches

Blizzard has announced the latest expansion pack for Hearthstone, Journey to Un'Goro, which launches in "early April" and begins the Year of the Mammoth. Quest cards are Legendary, so players will be limited to one Quest card in their deck, and they'll always appear in your opening hand. When you play a quest card you'll be set with a hard task - like summoning 7 death rattle minions - and completing those tasks will grant you some of the most powerful cards in the game.

We also see the introduction of quest cards. One example is Awaken the Makers; this tasks you with summoning seven Deathrattle cards. It gives you special conditions to meet over the course of a game, and fulfilling it will grant you a special, powerful card.

The second keyword introduced is Adapt, which works like a mashup of Discover, which is Druid's Choose One effect, and the spare parts that we saw a lot of during the Goblins vs. Gnomes era. Other revealed Adapt buffs include Living Spores, which causes your minion to summon two 1/1 plants with a deathrattle, Massive, which applies taunt, and Lightning Speed, which gives your minion windfury.

In the case of Verdant Longneck, it will adapt immediately upon being played as a Battlecry. Obviously, without the Adapt mechanic, this would be a below-average card, i.e. a worse Booty Bay Bodyguard, but you can choose the additional effect best suited to the board state. That will let you customize the cards as you need them in a given gameplay situation. You can see that trailer embedded, along with plenty of card reveals, in the video below. And when that form of Pyros dies, it will return to your hand once more as a 10 attack, 10 health minion with a mana cost of 10.

Also shown off was Pyros, a Mage legendary card with a design that resembles a phoenix. While the stats themselves are underpowered, a 6/6 for six isn't so bad when you can draw it for free and you don't have to actually play it in your deck.

We also have several new elementals. The consequences of that feature are firmly in the To Be Determined category, but it's something to pay attention to and may come into play in future expansions, if not this one.

Hearthstone'snew cards will add 135 all-new minions, spells, and more, with Blizzard teasing that some of the game's familiar faces will gain the Elemental minion type, joining the ranks of Murlocs, Dragons, Pirates, and Beasts for exciting new synergies.

Beginning tomorrow, you will be able to pre-purchase 50 Journey to Un'Goro card packs for $49.99 United States dollars and receive the Fossil card pack.